It's something Aggarwal put to good use when he was a campaign manager for underdog mayoralty candidate Rocco Rossi in Toronto, deputy chief of staff in 2008-2009 for Canada's leader of the opposition, and national operations director for Ignatieff's leadership campaign.

"In the political world, it's extremely important to be able to mobilize people," says Ian Davey, a well-known Toronto-based communications consultant. "Not just people who are paid, but volunteers. That's very difficult to do, and more difficult now in the political world than ever before. Sachin is extremely good at doing that."

Now a vice-president with Patient Order Sets, a national collaborative network of health-care institutions for best practices and evidence-based research, Aggarwal is a former Torys associate. He worked on mergers and acquisitions, securities law and public offerings, and represented clients such as Thomson Corporation in its Reuters deal, and Sherritt International in its $1.6 billion acquisition of Dynatec Corporation.

But when Ignatieff returned home to Canada in 2006, Aggarwal made the leap into politics. "Sachin was part of the team that got me involved in politics and I was very impressed by this young, extremely talented lawyer," recalls Ignatieff. "He has a tremendous strategic sense of what matters over the long term."

His meticulous and thorough organizational skills behind the scenes could very well put Aggarwal out in front over the next 10 years, says Davey. "Without question, I think he is someone who is a leader, and someone to whom people look to for leadership. These people tend to break the mold and do different things."

Ignatieff agrees. "I hope he'll be doing something political, but you can never tell with Sachin. He's a moving target."